fo: trekking socks

I feel like I’ve just completed some sort of knitting marathon. Except not really, because put together all of these unfinished pairs of socks were probably only a little more knitting than one entirely new sock. Still:

So, there’s that.

Pattern: lol. Generic stockinette socks.
Needles: little. I have lost track of it now, but I’m positive it was either 2.0mm (US 0) or 2.25 mm (US 1), which is possibly why I got so sick of knitting these when I first started with them.
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL, in Color 101.

I do actually quite like the striping in this yarn, and I am excited about how thin the fabric in these socks actually is (no risk of not being able to wear them with certain kinds of shoes, etc etc), but they were definitely the hardest of the bunch to motivate myself to finish.

But now they’re done, and I am practically giddy with excitement. I got to cast on for a pair of mittens! They are going obscenely fast! Look!

Song of the Entry: Spoon – The Underdog (Listen)

fo: abandoned socks (anastasia)

Working down the list of socks I need to finish, I thought I’d start with this pair. For one thing, they have an interesting stitch pattern, and for another, they’re knit up with delicious, delicious Koigu, in a colourway that, inexplicably, has not pooled. I have no idea if this is just the colourway, or if it’s related to the stitch pattern, but I have had some problems before, so this was a nice surprise.

Pattern: Anastasia Socks [Ravelry]
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, in a mysterious blue-green colourway. Knit with two skeins, one of which was clearly lighter than the other.

The one challenge to these socks, for me, came from the fact that I’d already knit one. The second sock had been knitted up the foot, but stopped at the heel, which meant that I had to match the heels of the two socks. I knit the first sock a long time ago, apparently – I can tell this not only from the Ravelry page, but also from the fact that I used a Sherman heel, which I haven’t used in months because afterthought heels are so much more fun.

The Sherman Heel is a variation on the short-row heel, except neater and a little easier to work (no wrapping!), and I do really love the way it fits. I used to have it memorized, and would just work one up without thinking, but for the second sock of this pair I actually had to hit Google, dig out some resources, and relearn it. The original set of instructions for the Sherman heel are here, and there’s a site here that helps customize the instructions for different stitch counts. It’s a technique that’s well worth trying out, and I really love the look of the results.

And, I now have one more pair of socks that I can cross off the “abandoned projects.” I want to cast on for a pair of mittens so badly I can taste it – I can’t wait until these socks are all done so I can start.

fo: abandoned socks (rainbow)

Finished!

It’s almost cheating to call this an accomplishment, because it’s really not. On the list of “unfinished projects to complete,” this was probably the easiest. I started these socks in October, finished them in about a month, and then they sat. For almost a year. In my defense, at least two weeks of letting them sit untouched was completely justified – I noticed that I’d dropped a stitch picking up one of the heels, and figuring out how to darn that in looked like it’d be a headache.

The other ten months, unfortunately, I have no excuses for.

But, one episode of Gossip Girl later (because Gossip Girl makes almost every unpleasant task less painful), they were totally done. They’re also the most screamingly rainbow-coloured socks in the entire world, but I think after all this time, I’ve come to terms with that.

Pattern: Generic toe-up stockinette socks, with afterthought heels.
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Yarn: ShibuiKnits Sock, in #51301 Spectrum